Martial King’s Retired Life

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Part 1)

After missing my first attack, I struck again. When the shadow of my pole appeared overhead, he immediately turned and moved. He seemed to have some metal object on him that jingled whenever he moved. However, he moved unbelievably fast. My swing was very swift, but to my surprise, I missed. He was much more agile than Jin Wangsun, who exchanged blows head on.

From the rear, Jin Wangsun shouted, "Big Cat, your sudden appearance didn't frighten Her H-, her, right?"

The owner of the dark silhouette shook his head, "No."

I laughed, "What sort of monster are you? Show yourself!"

I swung down at his head as my last swing. The wind blast produced from my swing evidently affected his movement.

He punched upward to meet with the pole coming down. He was abnormally strong. He was almost able to bend the pole with his punch. The strength of his punch didn't come from internal energy, but pure arm brute strength. It was clear that he had mastered an outer style, which allows him to strike swift as lightning and generate tremendous power.

However, the strength between an outer style and an inner style can't be compared. My swing pushed him back in spite of his effort. When he gradually lost his ability to support himself, I felt my pole tilt a little. To the side was Jin Wangsun, who held King Kong Sabre in his right hand while drawing a circle with his left hand. I had no clue what he was up to, but the circle he drew generated a suction force. The force ended up bending my iron pole a little.

Taking advantage of my pole being bent, the dark silhouette popped down and deftly rolled out of the range of my pole.

'Eh?'

'Why does this palm moveset Jin Wangsun is using look so familiar?'

"Daluo's Empty Palms?"

Jin Wangsun revealed a look a proud smirk, "Realise how formidable I am now?!!"

He attacked with the sabre in his right hand while the dark silhouette leapt at me at the same time.

'How did Jin Wangsun learn Empty Palms?'

'He only took my Night Net Manual. Five Divine Styles Manual can't possibly be in his ownership.'

'Ah, wait… Empty Palms isn't in Night Net Manual, but I did plagiarise some parts from Empty Palms. I even wrote version 2.0, The Shoulder Belongs to Me Grand Art!!'

'Jin Wangsun stole my The Shoulder Belongs to Me Grand Art, and then thought he learnt Empty Palms!!'

'Wipe that smirk off your face! All you learnt was how to snatch shoulders at a diner!!'

I twirled my iron pole and ruthlessly knocked Jin Wangsun back with a swing then I threw a slanted stab - the way you'd use a spear - at the incoming dark silhouette. He was fast to react, though. He grabbed the pole with his hands, but I could permanently cripple his hands if I channelled my strength through the pole.

I hesitated for a moment and decided against unleashing my strength; after all, he'll die if I use excessive force.

Seeing as I didn't follow up, he immediately leapt back to put distance between us and regroup with Jin Wangsun, who I smacked flying.

Upon closer inspection, I discerned the man, who entered the fray all of a sudden, to be roughly thirty years old. He was a tall and masculine man. I was surprised that he was as tall as I was. He was tall and sturdy. His gaze looked imposing without him having to be angry. I truly never expected him to be an accomplished man through and through.

I'm tall, but he was even taller than me. We look roughly the same height when face to face, but that was due to his weird way of walking, which made him shrink. He resembled a tiger poising itself to spring into an attack. He bent his knees and bent over at the waist to lean his body forward. As a result, he was shorter. If he stood straight up, he should be somewhat taller than me.

Despite his height being reduced when he bent over, his imposing aura wasn't reduced in the least. He's a large man with wide shoulders, a thick posterior chain and two big arms that were akin to tough iron. He was a large man for sure. In spite of his large physique, he wasn't slow.

His gaze was calm and imposing; when combined with his serious face and silent nature, he looked fierce as a tiger.

'It's clear that his skills aren't inferior to Jin Wangsun's. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that the bodyguard for the patriarch of Gold and Silver Sect is highly skilled, but the strange part is that he hid on the tree by the room and didn't show himself even after I gave his patriarch a beat down. It was only when Jin Wangsun had no choice, but to call for help that he intervened. I don't understand why that's the case, unless it's because…'

I glanced over to the room.

'There's someone even more important than Jin Wangsun hidden in that room.'

Once he noticed my line of sight, Jin Wangsun couldn't hide his fear, and hence, exclaimed, "Big Cat, this man randomly barged into our estate. Hurry, work with me to apprehend him!"

'So there is someone in that room as I thought.'

'I always suspected that Jin Wangsun had somebody in the capital that could get him connected. At the very least, this person had to be someone whose words held a lot of weight in the Imperial Court; otherwise, there's no way he would've had any chance of success if he came here to propose alone.'

'The Emperor has grounded him as punishment, but it's a light punishment. Plus, the competition topics are all in his favour. Aside from His Majesty being biased, I've always suspected that Jin Wangsun might've bribed a high ranking official or Prince of some sort that's close to His Majesty to put in good words for him.'

'The person in the room must be Jin Wangsun's mole.'

I moulded up energy to enhance the range of my five senses. Indeed, I could sense somebody sitting at the table in the room.

'The fighting here didn't seem to affect her.'

'Yes, it's a her. I can smell her body fragrance. She's a girl, and a beautiful one that you won't often come across.'

'I'm surprised that his mole is a female.'

Noticing my growing interest in the room, Jin Wangsun started to panic more, "Big Cat, hurry! Otherwise, Her H-, she'll be seen by this pervert. You and I will be done for if he does!"

The big man looked at me and shook his head. He kept silent for a moment before replying, "I cannot defeat him. We cannot fight him."

It was obvious that Jin Wangsun expected that response. Hence, he immediately said, "I allow you to remove your sabre rack."

The large man called Big Cat had three oddly shaped sabres on his back. I would presume that they were Jin Wangsun's sabres. Jin Wangsun likes to switch out his sabres for no rhyme or reason during fights. I, therefore, wouldn't be surprised he has a slave to carry his sabres. The reason I presumed the sabres belonged to him was mainly due to the fact that the large man carried the resplendent and splendid treasured Gold Silver Blade. Turns out the large man was always carrying a heavy metal rack that had sabres on them.

'Big Cat' shook his head again, "I cannot defeat him with my bare hands. We are still no match for him even if we team up."

Big Cat looked at me with an intense stare. He was extraordinarily calm, "His inner and outer energy is united. He is already at the Hegemon Realm. We are no match for him. To put it into perspective, his level should not be lower than your father's."

Jin Wangsun had a spark of realisation, "He's that skilled? No wonder why he could rule women and stand firm for so many years. I can't believe he's skilled enough to share a sentence with my old man."

'Hey! That's bullshit!'

'The real Zhong Ning isn't that incredible! He was only tough, because Mystery was backing him! Without Jia Yungfeng and Fu Xiang, the two super masters in Mystery, he'd have been dog food for the dogs of masters of the orthodox sects long ago!'

"We absolutely mustn't let our esteemed guest see him."

Jin Wangsun saw stars after my last whack; therefore, his face was still pale, "The situation is dire. I shall allow you to use Tiger Fang. Can you fight now?"

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